Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin
Yup, as an IT Project Manager, my mantra is "I'm NOT an engineer" (software or hardware or infrastructure or marketing or budgeting or any other aspect of the industry), and I must rely heavily on those who are. In PM parlance those folks are "resources", and without resources I'm hamstrung.
IT management is about knowing just enough about the resources to patch them together into a useful and profitable product.
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A description like that always makes me seriously angry and recalcitrant.
It basically says that the manager is some sort of genius strategist, who uses the people in his team as chess pieces, or worse, tools, to create a product. The worst thing is that there are many managers who actually believe that this is the case; them being the product creator, and the people in the team just (replaceable) tools to get the job done.
As soon as I detect that kind of attitude, a manager loses all respect in my eyes. If someone, in my eyes, shouldn't be in the position of a manager, teacher or leader (or whatever), then I have a *serious* problem with authority.
The way to prove to me that one should be in such a position is not by completing a ''leadership course" or a "Management of IT projects" education; you do it by showing me products you've (helped to) design, build or program in the past, thereby creating stuff that is actually used for a long time.
*THEN*, and only then, can you go follow some management courses and earn the privilege to be a project leader, and manage similar projects, so you actually know WHAT you are managing, and know which expectations are realistic and which are not.